Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a waterproof connector, and more specifically to a waterproof connector having a housing formed with a plurality of terminal accommodation chambers and an elastic sealing member (e.g., made of rubber) fitted to a seal hood portion of the housing to seal the terminal accommodation chambers.
Description of the Related Art
A first example of the waterproof connector is disclosed in Japanese Published Unexamined (Kokai) Patent Application No. 5-205810. The disclosed waterproof connector is composed of a housing formed with a plurality of terminal accommodation chambers, an elastic sealing member attached to the housing from the connector rear side, and a cap for fixing the sealing member to the housing. Further, a spacer is attached to the housing from a connector front side for prevention of removal of terminals accommodated in the housing. In this waterproof connector, a plurality of terminal parts connected to wires are inserted into a plurality of terminal accommodation chambers of the housing through insertion holes formed in the cap and the elastic sealing member, respectively. In this case, there exists a problem in that when the terminal parts are inserted into the elastic sealing member, the insertion holes formed in the elastic sealing member are easily dislocated away from the openings of the terminal accommodation chamber, so that the terminal insertion holes of the housing and the sealing member do not match. To overcome this problem, a plurality of ribs are formed on the inner side of the cap to fix the elastic sealing member by the cap. In this method, however, there arises another problem in that the number of parts and the thickness of the cap (i.e., the connector size) both increase.
A second example of the waterproof connector is disclosed in Japanese Published Unexamined (Kokai) Utility Model Application No. 4-58975, in which no cap is provided. This waterproof connector is composed of a connector housing formed with a plurality of lattice-shaped walls to form a plurality of the terminal accommodation chambers, separately on the rear side of the housing, and a sealing member formed with a plurality of square projections each fitted into each separated terminal accommodation chamber. In this connector, since the sealing member is inserted into each separated terminal accommodation chamber, the sealing member will not be dislocated away from the terminal accommodation chamber, so that the terminal insertion holes of the housing and the sealing member match well. In this connector, however, since a circular wire insertion hole is formed in each square projection of the sealing member, the wall thickness of the sealing member is not uniform around the wire insertion hole formed in the sealing member, so that when the wire is inserted into the wire insertion hole, the sealing member wall cannot be deformed uniformly, with the result that there arises a problem in that the wire cannot be tightly sealed by the sealing member uniformly around the wire.
A third example of the waterproof connector is disclosed in Japanese Published Unexamined (Kokai) Utility Model Application No. 62-26879, in which no cap is also provided. This waterproof connector is composed of a connector housing formed with a plurality of circular terminal accommodation chambers and a plurality of separate cylindrical sealing members, in such a way that each cylindrical sealing member is inserted into each terminal accommodation chamber, individually. In this waterproof connector, since the wall thickness of each sealing member is uniform around each wire insertion hole thereof, the wire can be uniformly and stably sealed by the sealing member. On the other hand, however, since a plurality of the cylindrical sealing members must be inserted into a plurality of the terminal accommodation holes of the housing one by one, the assembly work is troublesome and thereby the workability is low.